The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Nun. CONSIDER the pen, and all that they write [therewith]! 1 Thou art not, by thy Sustainer's grace, a madman! 2 Surely thou shalt have a wage unfailing; 3 Surely, you (Prophet Muhammad) are of a great morality. 4 You will see and they will also see 5 Which of you is afflicted with madness. 6 Verily your Lord knows those who have gone astray from His path, and He knows those who are guided on the way. 7 Therefore do not listen to the deniers. 8 Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant. 9 And yield not to any mean swearer 10 The excessively insulting one, spreader of spite. 11 the hinderer of good, the transgressor, the sinful; 12 [or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed, and in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men]. 13 Because he possesses wealth and (numerous) sons. 14 and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.” 15 Soon shall We brand him on his snout. 16 Lo! We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed that they would pluck its fruit next morning, 17 Without saying: Insha' Allah (If Allah will). 18 So an envoy from your Lord completed his round upon the garden, whilst they were sleeping. 19 And by morning it lay as if it had already been harvested, a barren land. 20 So they called out to each other at the break of dawn, 21 'Come forth betimes upon your tillage, if you would pluck!' 22 Thus they launched forth, whispering unto one another, 23 Let there not enter upon you today any needy man. 24 They left early in the morning bent on this purpose. 25 But when they saw it, they said, 'Surely we are gone astray; 26 “In fact, we are unfortunate.” 27 The best among them said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Why do you not proclaim His purity?’” 28 They said: hallowed be Our Lord! verily we have been wrong-doers. 29 Then they turned to each other reproaching. 30 [In the end] they said: "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we did behave outrageously! 31 Perhaps our Lord will replace it with a better garden. We turn in repentance to our Lord". 32 Such is the chastisement, and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, did they but know! 33